Coronavirus: Itec to offer SA businesses free video-conferencing

Managed business solutions provider Itec in partnership with StarLeaf is making remote working free via the StarLeaf application to help South African businesses work remotely in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s clear that technology and cloud software tools can play a major role in keeping South African companies, their employees and their customers connected and working as close to business as usual as possible in the face of the Coronavirus,” said Itec’s product strategy lead, Renaldo Muregess.

“There’s been a huge scramble from local businesses this week for solutions to help them stay connected as concerns over the Coronavirus spread. We’ve seen the use of online collaboration tools going through the roof as growing numbers of businesses send their people home to work remotely and cut back on face to face meetings, but some of the better-known solutions have been battling to stay stable.”

StarLeaf’s latest new features include the ability to integrate easily with Microsoft teams and many other video conferencing platforms.

“While there’s a plethora of collaboration tools on the market today, Itec shares StarLeaf’s approach that collaboration should not be restricted to one platform, that individuals have the ability to communicate in the way that works best for them, and that we should support businesses on their journey to creating their own technology stack,” said Muregess.

An example of StarLeaf’s ability to integrate with other platforms is its Microsoft Teams integration, that brings together StarLeaf video meetings with the advanced collaboration features of Microsoft Teams. This enables users to collaborate from a single workspace and increases productivity for organisations which have Microsoft Teams, with users able to meet with anyone, anywhere and on any device, both internally or outside the business.

“Our focus remains firmly on providing our users with secure and intuitively simple room and video meeting solutions that can be used by anyone, regardless of where they are, the size of their meeting space or the existing tools they have in place,” said Muregess.